A hearing continued on granting conditional use approval to build a 930,000-square-foot fulfillment center on 81 acres northwest of the intersection of Route 222 and Schaeffer Road in Maidencreek Township.
The first leg of the hearing took place in late November and featured initial testimony by developer and property owner Maiden Creek Associates aiming to prove the warehouse plans conform to township zoning rules.
If developers secure conditional use approval, they will still need to have land development plans approved by the township.
At Wednesday’s hearing in the Fleetwood High School auditorium, developers called Chris Williams, traffic engineer with McMahon Associates, Chester County, to testify and field questions from township supervisors and residents.
Traffic study
Much of Williams’ testimony dealt with a March traffic impact study commissioned by the developers that estimated how four intersections surrounding the warehouse site would be affected by the development.
Williams gave a detailed breakdown of the methodology of the traffic study.
He said the study evaluated traffic conditions at Route 222’s intersections at Route 73, Tamarack Boulevard, Schaeffer Road and Pleasant Hill Road.
He said each intersection was assigned a letter grade, from A through F, depending on the amount of delay measured, with A being the least amount of delay.
“In traffic terms, A through D are considered excellent to good. E is a borderline condition, but not always bad depending on the road type,” Williams said, “F is usually a problem.”
The amount of traffic the warehouse is predicted to add was calculated using post-construction traffic data collected by the Institute of Transportation Engineers from 22 similar “non-sort” style fulfillment centers.
Williams noted “non-sort” warehouses like the one planned for Maidencreek deal with larger products and feature more automated sorting processes than “sort” facilities, which process many smaller items that need intensive manual sorting.
He also said traffic at intersections near the proposed warehouse has been running at highly acceptable levels of service ranging from A to C since PennDOT finished its recent improvement projects along the 222 corridor.
Those projects include installing roundabouts at the Tamarack Boulevard and Schaeffer Road intersections, and the widening of the Route 73 intersection.
Plans are also in place for another roundabout at Pleasant Hill Road, Williams noted.
He said that because the roads are now running efficiently, the added traffic from the warehouse — projected at 1,686 vehicle trips per day, including 214 truck trips — would have a negligible impact on travel times.
“PennDOT’s improvements have gone a long way to address the issues that have historically existed along Route 222,” Williams said. “As such, there is available capacity in the future to accommodate the additional traffic from the warehouse development.”
Gregg Adelman, representing Maiden Creek Associates, said the developers don’t propose conducting a follow-up traffic study six months after construction is finished despite a request for that by Maidencreek officials because the additional study isn’t legally required.
Access plans
Williams said no off-site road improvements would be required by PennDOT, but the warehouse is proposing improvements to site access.
Those improvements include adding a main access inbound lane and two exit lanes at the property’s intersection with the Shaeffer Road roundabout, as well as a secondary access point further down Route 222 that includes a 150-foot deceleration lane for entering the property.
Left turns to and from the property would be restricted by a median in the center of 222 as required by PennDOT, Williams said.
Also speaking at the hearing was Jeffrey S. Clark, a hydrogeologist with Valley Environmental Services, Emmaus, who testified that plans to install bedrock-lined stormwater basins throughout the site would control stormwater runoff and prevent the conditions that lead to sinkholes.
Questions raised
Following the testimony, Supervisor Heidi Fiedler questioned how developers could be certain about the types of traffic generated by the proposed warehouse without having secured a tenant.
“I understand there’s published data for various operations, but we’re concerned with this operation,” Fiedler said, “and you don’t know who the tenant is or what all the traffic is going to be … some of it (the estimated traffic) could be vans or smaller trucks.”
Adelman said developers are not required to specify a tenant before building a warehouse.
“If there were some additional trucks, it’s not going to change the results of the traffic study,” Williams said. “I’m confident that if there were some more small box trucks … there is sufficient capacity at these intersections that there would be no undue congestion.”
Supervisor Joshua Meck asked why the traffic study didn’t include an analysis of the intersection at Route 222 and Evansville Road.
Meck said he had concerns that Isamoyer’s Towing, located at that intersection, could have trouble pulling tow trucks in and out due to the increase in truck traffic along Route 222.
“My experience is that Evansville Road doesn’t experience as much traffic as does Pleasantville Road and other parts,” Williams said. “It’s my opinion that there would be no (traffic) impact at Evansville Road.”
Meck also brought up concerns that placing a median in the center of Route 222 across from the warehouse property could negatively impact emergency vehicles and homeowners by preventing them from making left turns.
Williams said the median would increase the time it would take for those homeowners to enter the lane across the median, but the result would be safer. He noted installation of the median was requested by PennDOT.
As for emergency vehicle access, Williams said the median would likely be low enough that it could be crossed by a vehicle if necessary.
A handful of residents commented as well.
Those comments ranged from relaying safety concerns stated at previous meetings about the impact of adding truck traffic to a dangerous strip of Route 222, the validity of details of the study and credentials of Williams as a traffic expert.
The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. in the Fleetwood High School auditorium.
Source: Berkshire mont
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